Scorpius Port

Dark Souls still alive

I have been hopping into Dark Souls a bit lately, yes, I know, “GASP!!! A WOMAN plays DARK SOULS?!” I’m also planning to get Dark Souls II, so there. :-p

Anyway, I am happy to report that the online play for Dark Souls is still going pretty strong. Most of the invaders that chased me off the game so long ago have stopped being so annoying. The ones I have encountered have mostly been great sports. One in particular was AWESOME. I was trying to get past the Taurus Demon in the Undead Berg, you know the guy, he stands on the city wall and charges at you when you step out of the tower door. Nasty fellow. Particularly with the two archers up behind you on the tower adding to the fun times down there.

I know that I need to get up the ladder and take them out, then do a drop attack down onto the demon, but ever time I tried I got squashed before I could get up the ladder after he’s triggered. I’d go out. Clear them, climb down, trigger Taurus Demon and would get halfway up the ladder before he’d get me. Or, I would get up there and turn and he’d have climbed up as well. Not nice.

So, After around 2 days of leveling up and trying again I had myself a soul that I used to regain my humanity and summoned a helper. This was my last shot, I needed to get the thing because I had lost all but that soul. I’m ready to set out, I have my adventuring buddy, I’m looking to see if I can spot another white marker and… cue invasion.

For those who don’t know, Dark Souls allows players to invade other games and fight the other players. Not kind, but if you can’t take being killed you should really play a game that does not start out with you being dead. Right?

Right.

So, invader has a big bow and I don’t recall if he was also the one with the lightning spear or not, but I think he had that. Anyway, he makes quick work of my companion. I am the sort that is careful in fights, so I last to see my companion go down, then try to shoot back with my own bow and go down a moment later. Usual gory splatter of Zayne (my character) on the stonework. Bloodstain left thankfully close to the bonfire, but no more humanity to revive so I can find helpers. I’m frustrated and honestly at point of tears because I had managed to clear the whole way to the Taurus Demon before summoning my fellow adventurer and now I had not only no adventuring companion to go after the Taurus Demon, but all the guys I had fought were back up and moving again. Frustration.

I sent my usual “Thanks for trying, sorry I wasn’t better in that fight” to the guy I had summoned, and “Good fight” to the invader. In my email to the invader I noted that his timing could have been better, because that was my last humanity, but good fight. I got a reply a few moments later from the invader. He reminded me I could backtrack to the rat and told me to let him know when I had a humanity. Took a bit, and he tried a few other ideas all of which I had already got the humanity from, but I got one humanity from the rat and he had me summon him to my world. Then he gave me a bunch of humanity (10 twin souls) and some other nifty things to help me out on my quest. He also pawned the Taurus Demon for me, (before I even got up the ladder YAY!) and then had to run. But he was definitely a great guy and even if he did start out as an invader picking on Zayne, he came back and really helped the guy out in spades. Zayne is now all the way up to having just taken out the Gaping Dragon and ready to head for Blight Town…. Anyone know how to give Gaping Dragon’s CPR? I’d REALLY like to give it back that dang key. I don’t want to go to Blight Town!

Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of summon sign dropping at regular call points, so if you need a hand feel free to summon up ShadesDaughter if you see me. I might not be the greatest gamer, but I can hold my own in fights and am getting pretty good a knowing where things are in most of the areas I’ve been through.

The one issue I have had is around 8pm to 10pm Alaska time is when the Japanese players start getting online. They are the ones that do the most invading. Lasts around 2 hours, during which I have started just doing other things. I don’t know why, but the players I have checked in my “Players Met” list that have not started fights fairly or bowed, who have used things that suck out Humanity and the Ring of Fog and stuff… they are all listed as being from Japan. I’d always thought those would be the guys that would, like me, bow politely to show they were ready to start a match, and bow to the bloodstain, and who would use level appropriate weapons instead of stuff that is WAY over-powered for the person they invaded. They also tend to ambush more than any other invader. I don’t know why. So, I do other things during that time span, or go to where I have cleared the boss and drop summon signs of my own to help folks out, and wait for the Russians and folks from the Netherlands to get on later on, they do a lot of helping out. Americans tend, from what I have seen, to play around 5am to 8am my time, so morning to early afternoon gamers.

You can pretty much find someone on Dark Souls whenever you are wanting to play it, so if you can’t get Dark Souls II yet, or are starting to feel nostalgic, or just want to hop into the series, Dark Souls is still alive and doing well with the online community. Lots of good help signs, lots of bad advice signs (DO NOT attack merchants unless you intend to never talk to them again. Even then, WHY attack the poor guys?), lost of helpful players assisting with bosses and not as many invaders as there once was.